Joplin School District Drills for an Earthquake

An earthquake in the New Madrid Seismic Zone which sits on the New Madrid fault line could impact fourteen central states. Today in those states schools took part in the "Great Central U.S. Shakeout Earthquake Drill.” Joplin school participated too.

Around 10:20 this morning students at Eastmorland Elementary heard this, "Beep, beep, teachers, we are conducting an earthquake drill at this time."

And even before the announcement was complete students had taken cover under their desks.

Second grade student Jonathan Goswick explained what to do. "You have to put you hand over your head or neck and duck and hold a heavy structure that you're holding and make sure that your face or head is staying away from windows or doors that have glass."

That's to prevent getting hurt by falling debris.

Second grader Ari Matters said, "If a real earthquake would happen we'd have to face this way, and it can cause flying glass."

Jonathan added, "It would make the whole room into a junk pile."

Joplin students are among five hundred thousand statewide in Missouri participating in the shakeout earthquake drill. Besides the practice, they'll learn about earthquakes.

Teacher Whitney Terry said, "We have a unit coming up where we talk about earthquakes and the way it changes the earth."

During a tornado drill the students go to the gym which doubles as a shelter but the students now understand the difference in the drills and even know why they need to do the drills at all.

Jonathan explained, “Because if we had a real emergency, and we didn't practice then we wouldn't know and we would just freak out."

Principal Heather Surbrugg said, "It could certainly happen and it did recently. We felt the ripple effects from an Oklahoma earthquake. You just gotta be ready for anything."

Sam Davidson didn’t feel the Oklahoma quake but said, "My mom and dad, when they woke up their lamps were shaking."

Sam says he's not afraid but some students are.

Jonathan admitted, "Yeah a lot. They could kill people’s lives."

We asked how students felt after the drill?Sam said, "It kind of hurt!" We asked, "Why?"He explained, "Cause you have to hold on to your neck and crouch down for a very long time and my legs were getting tired."

But some students believe that little bit of pain is worth it. Jonathan said, "It makes me feel a lot calmer when this happens." And principal Surbrugg added, "The kids like the drills. They like to practice. They like to be aware. They understand that this is part of life and we've got to be ready."

Shakeout has a website that offers earthquake preparedness, resources, statistics and videos of scenarios. Click here for a link

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